Inducible Plant Proteins

Plants are able to respond and adapt to changing environmental and endogenous signals by the induction of the synthesis of specific proteins, acting to modify cellular metabolism. Environmental signals include temperature, anaerobiosis and pathogen attack amongst others, whilst endogenous signals include changes in the level of plant growth regulators. In this text, leading researchers discuss the role that inducible proteins play in cellular metabolism, and the approaches being used to delineate the molecular events leading to their synthesis. Chapters discuss molecular approaches to the study of gene expression, the identification and characterisation of trans-acting transcription factors and attempts to dissect other parts of the signal transduction pathway by the search for pathway mutants. This timely review volume will be of great value and interest to final year undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in the fields of plant biochemistry and molecular biology.

Contributors; Preface; Metal-binding proteins and metal-regulated gene expression in higher plants; Phosphate starvation inducible enzymes and proteins in higher plants; Nitrate reduction in higher plants: molecular approaches to function and regulation; Inducibility of the glutamine synthetase gene family in phaseolus vulgaris L.; Expression and manipulation of genes involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis; Biochemistry and molecular biology of CAM; ABA- and GA-responsive gene expression; Regulation of gene expression, ethylene synthesis and ripening in transgenic tomatoes; Induction of nodulin genes and root nodule symbiosis; Systemic acquired resistance: an inducible defence mechanism in plants; Biochemistry and molecular biology of the anaerobic response; The heat shock response in transgenic plants: the use of chimaeric heat shock genes; Biochemistry and molecular biology of cold-inducible enzymes and proteins in higher plants; GBF-1, GBF-2 and GBF-3: three arabidopsis b-zip proteins that interact with the light-regulated rbcs-1A promoter; Index.